Ramaldian Sphere
The Ramaldian Sphere is a Pantheon of Deities worshipped throughout the world, but its mostly focused on the continent of Jebrak. Belief The Ramaldian Sphere is the belief that within the solar system there is only one true pantheon of gods and that all other gods are misinterpretation of the true deities or the deification of lesser beings. They work towards revealing the true pantheon and spread it all over the sphere. The name of the Pantheon is derived from two things: Ramalda the name of the Sun for the followers of the Pantheon and its Sphere referring to area of divine influence of Ramalda. Its worshippers know that there is life and deities in other spheres and that most of them are hostile to the world of Solcu and it's the main reason why they seek to bring the all races under one pantheon. Worship There are many ways of worshipping the deities of this Pantheon, some of them specific to the deity, but some that are almost shared between them all: * Sacrifices of food, wealth or souls. They reject live sacrifices. * Holy festivals during specific days. * Personal and Mass Rituals. * Personal and Mass Prayers. * Reading Holy Texts. Powers Each of the deities have their own domains granting them and their clerics very specific powers, but their power requires icons or holy men to work giving them the power to channel barriers, charms, heals, curses and blessings. A dead cleric or a destroyed icon will lose the powers they were channelling. A physical avatar of the god is a lot less limited in scope. A god can also answer a prayer in the mind of the believer or answer a mass by channelling its voice trough an cleric. If the deity has soul in his domain he can choose to resurrect it, provided that his worshippers have the body or part of the body, or incarnated into a newborn. They can also give prophecies of possible futures. The powers and title of the cleric are partly defined by the main domain he chooses to follow. It also makes it easier to worship and channel powers from the deities that share the main domain. On the other hand any interactions with deities outside the the cleric main domain will be harder. As there are only 6 main domains there are only 6 clerical classes in the Pantheon: * Life - Druid - Specialized in healing. * Mind - Monk - Specialized in barriers. * Law - Priest - Specialized in charming. * Strife - Cultist - Specialized in curses. * World - Shaman - Specialized in blessings. * Enigma - Philosopher - Specialized in nothing. Leadership At all times there are six thrones in the Ramaldian Sphere, one for each domain, and one of these thrones is the throne of the grand ruler. A deity or a coalition of deities gets one throne which is equivalent of one vote, the grand ruler decides on who gets which throne and proposes divine treaties to vote. In case of tie a random deity gets one tie-breaking vote. The grand ruler of thrones is the same as the religious group who leads the largest nation of Ramaldian Sphere worshippers. Mythic Veil The mythic veil is a mysterious force that hides deities and myths from the believers, either because the deities haven't been found and the myths aren't yet needed. This force only appeared with the ascension of the Order of Peyloros, whose writers officialize myths and gods, and them and the gods are the only that can breach this veil. The Styon-Touched believes this to be a ruse for the order to maintain control over the mythology, but the truth is that a gods power don't exist to the worshippers of the Ramaldian Sphere until the order says so. In order to breach more of the veil the order started promoting far colonies, because in the 150 years after the Cataclysm of Rorolark there had been very little breaches, and they were often provoked by the gods themselves. This forced the order to renovate its members with younger beings of all races so that they could explore the gods and mythologies of other cultures. This would expand the pantheon, mythologies and powers accessible to the worshippers of the Ramaldian Sphere. Deities The Deities of the Ramaldian Sphere are powerful beings made from belief, each with their own realms, divine servants and specters. For one deity to birth another they must give consent to sire such children. They can also conceive children with mortals that are born as demigods. Known Deities Veiled Deities Veiled deities are deities in which their myths and identities have yet to be found by the worshippers of the Sphere and as such the Order of Peyloros hasn't made them official in the Pantheon's doctrine. Only by order exploration of world and incorporating foreign mythologies can these deities identities be truly know. However these deities can be mentioned and referenced in already written myths without revealing their identities. Some of the few mentions of potential veiled deities are: * A female born of Shoul and Soul Thief relations. * A deity of judgement and another of security. * A deity that deals with artifices or industry. * Lots of sea, sky and weather gods. * Saurian deity that sired the Sauramander. * A cancerous deity of rebellion. * Deities related to fishing and aquaculture. Predecessor Deities Many deities had their worship replaced with worship of their version in the Ramaldian Sphere, and are considered defunct deities. Here are some of the predecessors of deities of the Ramaldian Sphere: * Zurimand of the envenomed weapons - Zussi * Wivemand of the infected claws - Cwivel * Nalamand of the eternal scars - Vnaldra * Lanomand of the tricked genders - Lao * Rewamand of the hollow belly - Reilchwa * Kavemand of the salted earth - Salkave * Krama that tamed us - Mazdra * Matak that taught us - Molreque * Hermit Wanderer Sjemerel - Sehkra * Lone Hunter Zrued - Zussi * Sleeping Monarch Ahkravant - Sehkra History Creation Myth At first there were the Gods enlightened creatures of wondrous divinity, infinite in number and nameless. They existed in the eternity of nowhere fighting and arguing over their final creation, after many failures and games. In the end they settled for the Cosmos, one made of dust. These gods would wander the Cosmos collecting dust until they had enough to make a Sphere, some entirely alone, others in groups. One such group were the gods that would come to create the Ramaldian Sphere. From most of the dust they made Ramalda, then they made the eleven worlds and their moons. Some desolate and lifeless. Others with scraps of imperfect life. They were unsatisfied with these creations and only had a few dust left. With these small scraps and with what they could pull from the rest they made Solcu, the final world, and stole four moons from their previous creations to surround it. At last they populated the world to give it life and to help them complete this last creation. But the races were like their gods, they fought and argued at every opportunity for the nature of their creators were unfathomable. And when each of the races started giving names to their creators, the god began to lose their power. Each race took a bit of the deity power and personality with each of their disagreement. Only when the goblins, created by the power of Shoul and Salva, started unifying beliefs and absorbing it to their power did these gods begun to restore themselves. This is the true purpose of the Ramaldian Sphere, to unify the gods under one pantheon and unify the belief of the races in these gods so they can return to the creatures of wonder they were before. Shoul's Conquest The worship of this pantheon started with the worship of Salva and Shoul, two entirely goblin deities. While the goblins were young they stood united under this small pantheon, but as more and more interaction with the other races started more and more the goblins had their views challenged. With these challenges came dissent as more and more goblins grew enamoured with foreign mythologies. It's not truly know what happened next but the ancient order of shoul became the leaders of the biggest nation of forest and ice goblins. In order to calm dissent and justify the wars of this nation that enslaved all other races, they successfully convinced the goblins that only by appropriating them could their myths and gods be truly theirs. Peyloros' Truth During the various war, the myths became incorporated as they were and every religious group wrote their own new myths that contradicted previous myths and offered contradicting lessons. Eventually this would've escalated into religious civil war between the various groups of the Pantheon, but one order managed to convince all of the groups. The Order of Peyloros got simultaneous confirmation from all gods that only the myths offcialized by this order would be the ones that happened. This set the order as the unconditional true ruler of the religious groups of the Pantheon. They searched and rewrote every myth and unifying the deities into one true form instead of a desynchronized mess of the past. Salva's Rule With the fall of the capital and surrounding cities during the Cataclysm of Rorolark much of the empires power shifted to the Sand Goblins. This shifted caused the Order of Shoul to lose power to the Church of Our Radiant Lady. Due to the doctrine of Salva many of the Sand Goblins found their heavy use of slavery forbidden. This would've created another civil war, if it wasn't for Cataclysm happening one month ago, revolting at this stage would've triggered the fall of what remained of the empire to barbarianism. As Jungle Goblins stayed in the newly born republic, with many of their new mutant crops, there was almost no problems with labour and eventually these slave races gained new equal rights and eventually citizenship. However the nations of the Crag, Mountain, Forest and Ice never forbid force labour as they were either separated or defiant to the Jebrakian Republic. Tales The tales of the Ramaldian Pantheon are divided into two types: Myths, those that involve a deity as a protagonist, and folklore, those that involve deities as secondary characters. Some of these are: * Cataclysm of Rorlark - The series of tales telling the influence of the gods in the Cataclysm that destroyed the old empire. ** Fire and Rage - The tale of Malvar fury at the goblin empire. ** Light and Blood - The tale of how Salva and Shoul fought for the throne of Grand Ruler during the Cataclysm. ** Monsters and Soldiers - The tale of how Salkave clashed with Malvar. ** Prison for the Firehearted - The tale of the imprisonment of Malvar. * Black Manor Family - The series of tales telling the daily life of the gods growing in the Black Manor. ** Zussi's Birth - The tale of what led to Zussi's Birth, his birth and youth, until the moment his parentage was revealed. * Shamaldian Folklore - Old folklores and myths of the Shamaldians turned into Ramaldian texts. ** Cauldron of Shamal - The tale of Zussi and Sehkra which led to the creation of the demigod Shamal and the creation of the Shalmadians. * The Friendly Twins - The series of tales telling of the time Ava and Lao wandered the world after they escaped the Black Manor. ** Children of Saints - The tale of when Lao plotted with the World's Lindwurm to create a great beast to seduce and sire a child born from all divine creatures. * Sauramander's Voyage - The series of tales of how the Sauramander travelled the world. ** Sauramander and the Salamander - The tale of when Sauramander sires the Fiectir egg and how the Kimbordian Salamander forces it to leave the egg behind. ** The ones who named us - The tale of how the Kramatak were left to the care of Mazdra and Molreque. ** Frozen Corpse - The tale of Sauramander demise to the cold of Barthalda. * no series ** Love in Custody - The story of how Shoul and the Soul Thief sired a child. ** Wyvernians Cursing - The story of Malvar's attempt to sire a child deity with the World's Lindwurm including his threat and curses and what effect it had on the Dragon Race. ** End of the Cosmic Path - The story of Myogosmia thoughts just before arriving into Solcu and his arrival. Organizations Warrior Lodges The Warrior Lodges is one of the reasons why the worship of the Pantheon is so prevalent and why the Goblin Empire had such success conquering Jebrak. The Warrior Lodges trains melee warriors to bless themselves with very specific blessings and how to use them. Each god only has one specific blessing that the Lodges can give and each Lodge can only theme itself after one god. A warrior takes on average a week to learn the first blessing, a month to learn a second and how to stop it from conflicting with the first and one year to learn a third blessing and how to stop it from conflicting with the other two. There are known examples of four or more blessings but these are very exceptional cases. The Lodges request no money or sacrifices but requires loyalty to the nation and god the lodge belongs. If the nation falls the blessing will stop working until they pledge loyalty to another lodge of the same god. Normally each city on Jebrak only has one Lodge but the colonies tend to have two or three. The gods themselves can't forbid anyone from getting their blessings and are bounded by divine law to not acknowledge anybody that is blessed as blessed. Here is each Blessing: * Salva's Gift of Sight - Immunity to optical illusions, perfect Sight(Night vision, immunity to sudden flashes, eagles eye) * Zussi's Gift of Toxins - Attack inflicts poisons, resistance to poisons * Shoul's Gift of Blood - Blood drain (other's blood that touches the blessed heals him), resistance to bleeding * Amada's Gift of Health - Improved health and regeneration, touch heals physical damage * Sehkra's Gift of Sleep - Sleep heals damage, resistance to fatigue * Ava and Lao's Gift of Charm - Presence boosts moral in allies, touch facilitates betrayal * Lindwurm's Gift of Scale - Reduces damage received, increases block chance * Baron's Gift of Terror - Presence boosts fear in hostiles, resistance to fear * Thief's Gift of Freedom - Increases speed, resistance to entangle and slow * Myogosmia's Gift of Secrets - Obfuscates precision, Boosts stealth * Malvar's Gift of Adrenaline - Increases stamina and strength, boosts the effect of adrenaline * Tachulan's Gift of Gravity - Decreases weight, touch decreases weight * Salkave's Gift of Monsters - Increases strength and stamina, boosts the effects of natural painkillers * Vuldorol's Gift of Insanity - Wounds cause more mental damage, touch heals mental damage * Vnaldra's Gift of Pain - Wounds cause more physical damage, pain boosts stats * Cwivel's Gift of Infections - Attack inflicts diseases, disease resistance * Reilchwa's Gift of Fulfilment - Always nourished and happy, Immune to psychological and drain effects * Mazdra's Gift of Pulse - Detect life, nourishment efficiency * Molreque's Gift of Dominion - Beasts not inherently hostile, touch tames wild and ownerless beasts * Styon's Gift of Void - Presence reduces divine intervention, touch nullifies blessings and curses * Peyloros's Gift of Code - Understand all codes, speech is undecipherable except for who it is intended Church A church is a strict religious organization that often work with charity and in masses. They are usually a very hierarchical organization that relies of charm and diplomacy. The Churches found in the Ramaldian Sphere are: * Church of the Late Day Seductors * Church of the Radiant Lady * Church of the Merciful Lady * Church of Our World * Church of Our Harvest (defunct) Order A order is a strict religious, and sometimes militaristic, group that worships a god of the Pantheon enforcing a doctrine. They are usually a very hierarchical organization that produces holy warriors. The Orders found in the Ramaldian Sphere are: * Order of Shoul * Order of Peyloros * Order of Tachula * Order of Malvar (defunct) Circle A circle is a religious organization that worships a god of the Pantheon. They are usually several groups of equal people that professionally do rituals and functions as the doctrine demands. The Circles found in the Ramaldian Sphere are: * Circle of the New Druids * Circle of the Anarch * Circle of Sea Monsters * Circle of World Hunters (defunct) Cult A cult is a religious organization that follows or worships a forbidden or frowned god of the Pantheon. They are usually consisting of various independent groups each with their own leaders. The Cult archetypes found in the Ramaldian Sphere are: * Cult of Terror * Cult of Pain * Cult of Madness * Cult of Plague * Cult of Famine * Cult of Rage Other There are other variants of religions groups: * Word of the Dragon: A religious philosophy that deals with nature of greatness that the World's Lindwurm offered. * Hermit Clerics: The independent clerics of Sehkra in the Tarkanciel's Refuge. * Sole Dreamers: The hermits that have abandoned society to learn the lessons of Sehkra. * Pilgrims of the Cosmic Path: A religious philosophy that teaches the lessons learned by Myogosmia as it wandered throughout the cosmos. * Styon-touched: Those that don't believe in the power or existence of deities, but live in society that does. They are apatheists, anti-theists and the atheists protected by the void powers of Styon. Creatures There are many creatures treated specially in the mythology of the Ramaldian Sphere. Spectres To the Pantheon there are two types of spectres in the world. The Spectres, the spirits of those who can't move on to an afterlife, are often hunted for their souls so they can be given to a god in exchange of favours. The Afterliving, spirits of those who live on their gods realms, awaiting reincarnation or resurrection. The known types of Afterliving are: * Bleeding Hearts * Dreaming Wisps * Lustful & Lusted * Dragon Souls * Black Bones * Soul Coins * Ghost of the Lost * Firehearted * Harvest Ancestors * Thoughtform * Libram Vita Divine Servants The gods can create divine servants to serve them and protect their realms. Some of the known types divine servants are: * Sanguinary Angels * Luminary Angels * Nerelaven * Cubids & Cupids * Lindwurms * Phobomancers * Hounds of Rage * Myrmidons * Green Guardians * Void Brethren * Nul-Cyphers * Mad Flocks * Soul-Eaters Demigods A Demigod is a child of a god that was not made exclusively from divine essence. In this mythology the demigods have a higher presence in folklore and urban myths. Some of the demigods know to be in the Ramaldian Sphere are: * Shamal: the Lone Wanderer, Sire of the Shalmadians * Panzou: the Sphere Paragon, Patron of Pan Ramalda * Unknown: the Sauramander, Father of Seven, Patron of Sepsauria * Arbala: the Prophetess, Matron of Arbala City * Mirduriadriama: the Two-headed, Matron of Mokre'Sul * Almzar: the Warlady, Matron of Darm Almzar * Zardrat: the Slayer of the Mountain King, Matron of Darm Zardat * Rith: the Drunken Baron, Patron of New Rith * Unknown: the Mountain King, Ascendant Deity Elementals Elementals appear in the Ramaldian sphere mythology mainly as the Great Beasts. The Great Beasts are greater elementals that are said to have been given body by the World's Lindwurm to torment and challenge the races of the world out of complacency. Some of the know Great Beasts are: * The Earthpride: the cats of the Aloese's earth. * The Seducer Globe: the eater of servants, sire of the Sinferi. * The Kimbordian Salamander: the jungle-eating inferno. Worshippers There are many races spread around the world worshipping the pantheon, some of which are: * Dragons: Dragons worship the World's Lindwurm as their sole and only deity, and so far have allowed the goblins to use them as part of their pantheon. But the revelation of the Bone Wyverns ancestry and the younger generations worshipping different deities as changed this perception. * Fiectiri: These marsh dwellers originally worshipped several reptilian malignant deities and salamander elementals, but their times as slaves to the Goblin Empire converted them to the pantheon of their masters. * Goblins: The ancient empire of this race created and enforced the worship of this pantheon throughout all of Jebrak. * Kramataks: Kramataks originally worshipped the deities Krama and Matak, but their times as slaves to the Goblin Empire converted them to the pantheon of their masters. * Shamaldians: Shamaldians worshipped their parent demigod and the parent deities that made him, but their times as slaves to the Goblin Empire converted them to the pantheon of their masters. * Sinferi: Sinferis wandered Jebrak spreading the worship of ancient elemental deities, but their times as slaves to the Goblin Empire converted them to the pantheon of their masters. * Wyverns: Wyverns worship the World's Lindwurm as their sole and only deity, and so far have allowed the goblins to use them as part of their pantheon. But the revelation of the Bone Wyverns ancestry and the younger generations worshipping different deities as changed this perception. Category: Religions Category: Ramaldian Sphere